The much loved full size Gundam that was displayed in Odaiba last Summer, will be getting an upgrade of sorts at its new home outside the JR Higashi-Shizuoka Station. Specifically in the form of a lit beam saber pointed into the ground. This will also be a time limited display as well, starting July 24th until January 11th of next year. After that, there is still a chance it could become a permanent fixture in Nagoya. The reasoning behind the move to this city, rather than Tokyo or Osaka let’s say, is because Nagoya TV funded the original Mobile Suit Gundam TV series (as well as many other mecha shows from the early to mid-80’s).

Update: To coincide with the new home of the full size Gundam, Bandai are releasing a new 1/144 kit of it on the same day. To make matters more bizarre, the full size Gundam is now officially being referred to as a 1/1 scale “Gunpla” – which conjures an image of the whole thing being built on sprues!

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Of course, it would be cool if you could get into the thing and pilot it…but that’s what videogames are for.

Still, this brings up an interesting question: has anyone tried to–or has done–a comparison of the similarities between GUNDAM’s popularity and cultural impact and STAR TREK’s? Would be interesting to see…

There is the Statue of Liberty’s appearance in Ghostbusters 2 to consider, when the BURNING SPIRIT OF AMERICAN FREEDOM turned the Lady Liberty into an animate statue mecha, controlled through an NES Advantage joystick in the head “cockpit”, which bashed through a building-sized barrier of demonic jelly. I don’t know how demonic jelly compares to the Zaku’s titanium armor, but given the hundreds of years between the construction of the Statue of Liberty and the development of the venerable Zaku II, you have to admit the French artists and statue builders were truly visionary Super Robot mecha designers.

I suppose the Statue of Liberty’s mid-season upgrade would be the Mega Maid of Spaceballs fame. It even has a transformation mechanism!